"Ancient Kingdom Temple"

That was the astute observation of one of you in the "Summarizing, Evaluating, Taking a Position on Art" class we had this morning.

But what was it we were looking at?

Take a look:

The image we were viewing was against a white background, which made it difficult to guess the size. We didn't look at the title or other information on purpose, preferring instead to get all our information from direct observation of the primary source: the work of art itself.

After writing about it and discussing it in groups, you came up with the following phrases to summarize your experience of the art:

"Gold Gingerbread Kingdom, aka: Jesus"

"A Middle Aged* Detailed Temple Used for Sacrifices."

and

"Ancient Monarchs" 

Wow! 

Now the mystery can be revealed. The name of the art is called "The Shrine of the Three Kings," and it dates back to around 1180 a.d., according to some sources. It is actually a sarcophagus that reputedly holds the bones of the Three Kings - the Magi -  from the bible. It took around 40 years to build, then they built a cathedral in Cologne, Germany to hold it. The cathedral took over 600 years to build. Wow, again.

Here's a photo of it with someone running a vacuum, so you can get a sense of how large it is:

After we shared out in groups, then some of you wrote your further summary of the summary. Here is what you said:

"Ancient Detailed Kingdom"

"Jesus, Middle Aged Temple, Monarch"

"Gold Middle Aged Monarchs"

"A Middle Aged, Golden Temple Monarch"

"Jesus Temple Monarchs"

"Gingerbread Temple for Monarchs"

"Middle Aged Kingdom Religion"

"Monarch's Gold Temple"

By just carefully looking at - reading!- this art, you figured out the essence of what it is. You are brilliant indeed!

:^) Ms. H

*A word about the term "Middle Aged"--I know you all mean: from the time of the Middle Ages - and you were exactly right. However, when we say "middle aged" in the year 2013, it is used to describe someone who is older---someone, say, MY AGE. A better adjective would be "medieval," which means, from the time of the Middle Ages. (I will not appreciate it if you refer to me as being medieval. I'm not THAT old.)